Promoting Communication and Socialisation in Music Therapy

The aim of this book is to investigate how music therapy could promote communication and socialisation for children with Cerebral Palsy at an Early Intervention Conductive Education Centre. It involved two in-depth cases of children diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at different levels of severity at aged four to five years old, documenting individual music therapy sessions over a three month period. Assessment, Evaluation, and programming System for Infants and Children (AEPS) to provide a comparison before and after the research period. Staff perceptions about the nature of the children's communication and socialisation in music therapy were sought using a short and informal interview with two staff members at the Centre. These three data sources were triangulated in the analysis and the findings were discussed individually where each child showed diverse observable improvement in communication interaction with flexible and child-centred approaches. This contributed to an overview that music therapy could help engender interaction with others, facilitate 'conversations' and increase the output of verbal and non-verbal exchange.